


Flour Power: A Miraculous One Shot #4

by QweenBeen



Series: Heads and Hearts: Tales of the Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir [5]
Category: Adrien Agreste - Fandom, Chat Noir - Fandom, Marinette Dupain Cheng - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Almost Kiss, Baking, F/M, Flirty, Fluff, Food Fight, Making Out, coy, tease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 07:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10157096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QweenBeen/pseuds/QweenBeen
Summary: Our foursome of friends have some more bonding time when Marinette's parents leave for the weekend. Fluffy little fun one shot with some introspection on Marinette's part.But seriously, the tension between Adrien and Marinette is as close as it's going to get before they would have to start pawing eachother. ^_^Episode 2 is up next and we have some villians lying in wait!Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!Please check out the entire Heads and Hearts series if you haven't already so this one makes sense! ^_^http://archiveofourown.org/works/9205061/chapters/20882441http://archiveofourown.org/works/9652406http://archiveofourown.org/works/9707642





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for taking so long on this one. I was stuck weaving my web but I really hope it turned out okay!
> 
> You'll find that I threw in a few little one shot ideas that were Adrien and Marinette scenarios. I considered writing them out but I don't think I'll get to it (unless you'd really like me to, of course ^_^). 
> 
> I could write fluffy stuff all day but I really want to keep the story moving!

“Now, Marinette, are you _sure_ you can handle things on your own while we're gone?”

Her father had probably asked her the same question a million times already, but Marinette still gave him her most reassuring smile instead of the eye roll he would have merited by now.

“Dad, I'll be fine. I'll be sixteen in like a week. I think I can handle you and mom going away for a _weekend_.”

Tom Dupain smiled fondly at his daughter and brought her in for a bear hug. It was the kind of hug he did best. “I know, cupcake. Oh! Speaking of which, I want to do something special for your birthday. Something big!”

Marinette giggled and let her dad hug her tightly. “It's okay, dad. Something small will be great, too. Just have fun this weekend, okay?”

“It's a river cruise, how could it not be?” her mom chimed in, coming forward to join them in a group hug. It was as cheesy a farewell as Marinette could expect of her parents. “Oh, my little baby is growing up so fast,” Sabine cooed with a mock sniffle and a fake brush of a tear.

“Mooom!” Marinette finally rolled her eyes with a laugh as she broke free of them.

Sabine laughed and kissed her daughter on the nose. “Okay, okay, fine. Enough of this sappy stuff. We're going to miss our train now. You take care of yourself and no wild raging parties,” she reminded her with a wink.

“Oh, drat,” Marinette joked with a snap of her fingers. “So I need to return the kegs?”

“Depends on the ale, dear. If it's yummy, keep it.”

“Honey!” Tom reproached.

“Kidding! Buh bye, darling!”

“Don't forget the goodies in the fridge!” Tom yelled out with a final peck. “You've been nagging me about those for weeks!”

She was about to say there was no way she'd forget _those_ , but her parents were already rolling out the front door with their suitcases and a final wave.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Tikki flew down the stairs from her bedroom and bobbed excitedly in front of her.

“Oooo Marinette, what are you going to do now! No parents for a whole weekend!”

Marinette shook her head and rolled her eyes. “What? _Should_ I have a raving party or something?” She stretched her arms up over her head and elongated her back languidly, her muscles thanking her for the little extra stretch. “Maybe a nap. Yeaaaaah, that sounds awesome....” She yawned wide as she plodded up her stairs and daydreamed about her pile of pillows.

The Akuma battle the night before had kept her up far later than usual. Disgruntled night janitors just attacked on a different schedule than her. But the hardest part was not having Chat there to help. She hadn't seen him since they'd visited Master Fu and so hadn't had a chance to apologize. Well...apologize _more_. She had been eagerly awaiting the next Akuma attack for the chance.

If she had seen Chat last night, she would've tried to rectify one thing he'd mentioned. She would've asked him _questions_. He'd been absolutely right. What could it hurt if she knew his favorite food, or his favorite book? She'd taken her secrets too far, and now after a year she knew next to nothing about her partner.

But he hadn't shown up. Strictly speaking, she might have handled the Akuma too fast last night since it was right at her school next door. Chat could live across the city and not have heard about it until it was over. At least, that's what she hoped.

“A nap? _Blegh._ ” Tikki frowned and stuck her tongue out with distaste. “At least invite Alya over!”

“Alya already knows, Tikki. She has to babysit the twins and--”

Marinette's phone started to vibrate and she looked over to see Alya' s smiling face on the display. Her best friend's ears must have been burning.

She answered with her video chat as she plopped onto her chaise.

“Hey girl! Did your parents split yet?”

“Yep, just left. Why?”

“The twins just got invited to a friend's house for a play date, so I am off the hook! What do you want to do?”

“That's great, Alya!” Marinette looked longingly at her pillows and pouted. “I was um...going to nap but--.”

“Nap?! What are you smoking? You need to take advantage of this!”

Tikki grinned where she floated out of sight and Marinette sighed. It looked like peer pressure would win the day. “Okay, okay. What are you thinking?”

“I'm thinking we invite the _boys_ over.”

“What?!”Marinette leapt out of bed and looked around her Adrien plastered bedroom. “Why would we do that?”

“Why not? We can just chill, watch movies, snuggle--.”

“Woah, woah, woah! No way! I am no where _near_ the snuggling phase with Adrien! Are you crazy?!”

Alya rolled her eyes but she seemed to concede her point. “Yeah okay, so you guys aren't officially a thing yet. But he totally digs you, girl! You do remember the dance, right?”

Yeah, she remembered. How could she forget? That dance was forever seared in her memory. And the way he'd looked at her... _looked_ at _her_! She'd almost had to pinch herself, to make sure she wasn't wearing her Ladybug mask. In fact, she hadn't been wearing any mask at all, even her masquerade mask. He'd looked at _her_ and she had never known elation quite like it.

But of course, naturally, she'd had alot of time to think about it in the intervening weeks, which was probably the worst thing she could do. Her elation had turned into sheer mortification on _soooo_ many levels since that night that she didn't even know where to begin....

“Actually...Marinette?” Marinette was pulled out of her thoughts by the sudden bashfulness in Alya's demeanor. Alya was a lot of things, but shy wasn't one of them.

“To tell you the truth, Nino and I don't really get to chill alone much. Like, you know... _alone_ alone. It's a zoo at my house so we never get any privacy, and Nino's parents are well...hard asses.”

Marinette knew where this was going, and she was already starting to form a reassuring smile. “We were kind of hoping to take the opportunity to chill at your place...but I don't want you to think I'm like, using you or something! Oh my gosh, it's not like that at _all_!”

Alya's look of horror made Marinette laugh out loud. “I knew you were only my friend to take advantage of the once in a blue moon vacation my parents take!” Alya caught onto her sarcasm but her blush didn't fade.

“Alya, it's totally fine!” Marinette insisted. “Coming to chill is cool.” She put on a mock stoney expression that she imagined Nino's parents reserved for him. “But if you do anything to make Adrien and I feel super weird and awkward, like rolling around the floor making out, all bets are off!”

Alya beamed, squealed and grinned ear to ear, which Marinette reciprocated. “It's a deal! We'll roll around where you can't see!” Alya winked wickedly and grinned. “I'll call them now and we'll be over in a bit!”

As soon as Alya hung up, Tikki let loose the fit of giggles that she'd been holding onto.

Marinette rounded on her, her grin flipping to a worried frown in a heartbeat. “What are you laughing about, Tikki? This is _not_ good!”

Tikki's excitement never wavered. “Why isn't it good? Adrien likes you! He really likes you and now he's coming _over_!”

Marinette buried her face in her arms and didn't answer her right away. This was where it all got tricky and weird and she had over-thought all of this for weeks and she would go bat shit crazy if she didn't make sense of it all, pronto.

First, there was the fact that it was too good to be true. Knowing herself the way she did, she'd probably goof something up and he'd unlike her in a second. He'd realize he was crazy and all her beautiful life plans with him would come crashing down around her ears.

But say Adrien _didn't_ snap out of it. What if he wasn't just plain crazy, but actually crazy about her? It was a weird thing to imagine, but if she allowed herself to accept that as a fact, there was a bigger dilemma she had no idea how to resolve.

It was her last conversation with Chat, in fact, that had actually brought the problem into sharp relief. The web her secrets wove was more tangled than she'd imagined.

Marinette groaned into her arms and let Tikki try to decipher her muffled words instead of picking her head up.

“Tikki, if he likes me even a little bit, it's bad. It's all my fault Adrien had his heart broken in the first place! I just--just _squashed_ it into itty bitty pieces!”

Marinette lifted her head and pretended she had his poor heart clutched in her hands before scrunching her fists together to illustrate her point. “Itty bitty _pieces_ , Tikki! I am totally taking advantage of a broken heart that _I_ created! It's evil! It's worse than something Chloe would do!”

Chat had been right that night, of course. The secrets she kept were hurting the people she cared about. She couldn't even seem to keep straight the ones she should and shouldn't keep.

She had never intentionally kept the book a secret from Chat. That was an absolutely stupid secret to keep from him and she knew it. He had every right to be upset with her and she needed to see him soon to make it up to him somehow.

On the other hand, she still stood by her decision to protect Adrien from becoming Hawkmoth bait. She had learned to live with that decision and that secret needed to be preserved for his sake.

But now that secret had inadvertently lead him to her. She remembered her heartbreak clearly, when she'd discovered Adrien would only see the girl in the mask, and not the girl beneath. But this wasn't what she'd wanted. Marinette wanted to support him, make him feel better, be the friend he needed. Not make him fall in love with her! It was too twisted for words!

Tikki quickly interrupted her thoughts and her matter-of-fact tone grounded Marinette in the moment again. “Okay, for one, you could never, _ever_ be as bad as Chloe… _ick_ ,” Tikki pointed out. “And two! You did not break his heart so you could steal it as yourself. You had noble intentions of protecting him!”

“Noble or not, I'm reaping the benefits of it, Tikki! Ladybug is a cold callous bitch and Marinette saves the day!! I am utterly _devious_ and _deceptive_ and this is so wrong!” she cried to the ceiling before plopping her head back in her arms.

Tikki sighed and tried to sneak in between the little gap between Marinette's arms and face.

“I really don't know what will make you happy sometimes, Marinette,” she admitted quietly. “But if it makes you feel any better, you didn't do anything to deserve this... uh... _torment_?”

Marinette shifted so her head rested sideways on her arms. She listened to her little Kwame with a silent entreaty in her eyes, hoping that she could say something to make it all right.

“You didn't batt your eyes, did you?” Marinette's eyes grew wide at the question and she shook her head silently.

“Did you giggle and touch his shoulder all the time?” Marinette glared silently in response as she thought of Lila's stupid flirty clinginess. She shook her head adamantly. She was definitely not like that.

“Okaaay, did you lie about yourself, pretend to be someone you're not, like the things he likes so he'd _like_ you??”

Marinette sat up straight and Tikki waited patiently for her answer, as if she didn't already know what it was.

“No way, Tikki. I--I didn't-- _wouldn't_ do any of those things....” She glanced up at the portraits of Adrien that festooned her PC's desktop and her walls.

“That's right, you didn't!” Tikki said excitedly, clearly thrilled she'd had a break through with her perpetually confused friend. “You didn't do anything to woo him or trick him! He likes you for _you_ , Marinette! Don't you see that? He was just too blind to see that when there was Ladybug! But you're still the same Marinette you always were. That's what's important!”

Marinette nodded absently, their interactions from the last few weeks racing through her mind. They'd hung out and listened to Jagged Stone's new album together last week. He'd co-babysat with her when Manon had been dumped on her last minute. He'd even volunteered to teach her Chinese and they'd already had a couple of sessions. She wasn't much better at it, but he was...attentive, to say the least.

She blushed at that last memory and nodded. “You're right, Tikki. We've just been hanging out and all of this just sorta...happened.”

Marinette was silent for a long moment as she realized this might actually be the first time she could rectify both halves of her identity. For all of her powers, new and old, and all her heroics, there was a lot Ladybug couldn't do, and having a boyfriend was one of them. When the boy she'd loved for over a year was finally crazy about her too, why wasn't that okay?

“This is okay, right?” she asked aloud. “I mean, I didn't _do_ anything wrong, as Ladybug or myself.”

“No, you did not! This is _more_ than okay, Marinette!” Tikki nuzzled her cheek happily and spun around in a little mini cyclone. “This is _awesome_ ”. They laughed together excitedly before Tikki froze in mid-spin, huge eyes getting huger. “Uh oh, we have to clean your room.”

“Shit!” and Marinette promptly fell out of her chair.

* * *

“What is all of this?”Alya asked by way of announcing herself.

Marinette stood in the bakery's kitchen, surrounded by eggs, flour, sugar, and every single spice and sweet thing in the building. She'd spent an hour getting it all ready, and had even managed to slip a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies in the massive oven.

She had nowhere near her dad's skill level, and probably never would, but her passion wasn't baking like it was his. Still, she knew how to read recipe books and that was ninety percent of it, right?

She grinned ear to ear at the stunned look on Alya's face. She wasn't readily willing to share her true motivations for all this fanfare, but Marinette just hoped they'd all have a good time anyway.

Marinette wrapped an apron around her waist and neck as Nino and Adrien followed Alya inside. Nino cast a dubious look around the kitchen, snatching Alya's hand as if to protect himself from whatever madness Marinette had dreamed up this time. Adrien for his part, positively beamed as he looked around. The little butterflies in her stomach fluttered wildly as she threw Alya and Nino their aprons.

“Here you go, guys! Always use protection.”

The playful innuendo was totally lost on them, except for Adrien who chuckled, as Alya's shock slowly turned to blatant skepticism. “Uh...we're going to _bake_?” She stared down at the aprons she clutched in her hand.

“Yeah, whatever you want!” Marinette replied cheerfully as Adrien approached her from the side. “I have everything for cookies, eclairs, macaroons, you name it! Take your pick!”

“Uh...I make killer strawberries and whipped cream, but that's like my upper limit, Marinette,” Nino ventured as he put on his apron. Nino shrugged when Alya arched an eyebrow at him. “Wha? My mom digs 'em.”

“Oh, take one of these books, Nino. There's nothing to it.” Marinette stretched behind her to absently hand the last apron to Adrien as she reached towards the pile of recipe books in the corner. She froze in mid reach as she felt Adrian's hand rest totally unnecessarily on top of hers.

“This is a great idea, Marinette.” She turned towards him in stunned silence, glancing down at their hands as her brain short circuited at his touch.

"Erm...thanks, Adrien," she smiled with a flush. "Hope you like it." The recipe books were immediately forgotten as she opened up the apron still in her hands. "You've never baked before, have you?"

"How'd you guess?" he said with a smirk.

Oh boy, he really needed to stop looking at her like _that_. She wouldn't be able to think, let alone bake, if he kept that up.

Marinette swallowed the lump in her throat as she started to tie the top half of the apron around his neck. "I bet you have a beautiful kitchen," she murmered, trying really hard to focus on her fingers tying the knot she couldn't see. She felt his bright green eyes watching her intently so she stubbornly kept hers level with his chin. It was such a nice chin…and was that...was he growing…fuzz?

"I wouldn't know," he chuckled, tipping his head down towards her just as she finished the knot around his neck. "My chef would give me a hard boot in the ass if I even grabbed a snack."

The pesky lump in her throat made her gulp hard as she grabbed the loose ties that would go around his waist. What was she doing, helping him put this thing on?? This was totally cheese ball crazy!

Adrien took it all in stride and actually seemed to be purposely _un_ helpful. He'd shift slightly and she'd loose the knot her sweaty fingers were trying to make. Or he would move closer towards her....

"That's too bad. Maybe baking or cooking is something you would enjoy." Marinette wasn't really thinking about the words coming out of her mouth. All she knew was that her lips were fractions of an inch away from Adrien's jaw line as she had to lean closer to tie the knot.

Why did he have to smell so _good_....

"I guess I'll find out, right?" His lips curled into a playful smirk as she finally finished the knot behind him. Now was probably the time to step away from him... _probably_. “I can't promise I won't burn down the bakery, though.”

His voice was huskier and lower than it usually was. She smoothed down the front of his apron gently and unnecessarily, just to feel the hard plane of his chest. Were his shoulders broader than she last remembered?

She laughed quietly, her giddiness overwhelming her like it so often did, but this time she felt a new subtle eloquence as her fingertips lingered on his chest and she tipped her face up to his. All she had to do was raise herself up on partial tiptoes to meet his lips. All he had to do was lower himself ever so slightly….

“How about we start with the ingredients first?” She glanced at his lips and bit hers inadvertently, his eyes following her movement. “Leave the hot stuff to me.”

A snort from Alya's direction snapped them out of their increasingly tense moment. Marinette had entirely forgotten they weren't alone, and apparently, as she turned to her friend, they had a captivated audience.

Nino and Alya had crammed their faces behind the pages of an open recipe book, their eyes sparkling gleefully over the top of the pages as they watched the scene unfold before them.

“Think they saw us?” Nino whispered theatrically, quickly ducking behind the pages.

Marinette rolled her eyes as Alya snorted again with terribly contained laughter, gesturing for Marinette and Adrien to continue like there was nothing to see here.

Adrien stepped back away from her with a red flush creeping up his neck. Her flush was for entirely different reasons but she would have to agree; the magical moment was over.

Marinette reached over the kitchen island and pulled the book down from their faces. “What exactly are you kids giggling about?”

Alya's eyes widened as she fought tooth and nail to keep a straight face and look as innocent as possible. It lasted all of two seconds before she snorted again and broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter there was no turning back from. It was when she started gasping for air that Marinette crossed her arms and frowned.

“ _Hot...stuff_ ,” Alya choked out between breathes, tears glistening in her eyes, before she doubled over for another fit of hysteria.

Nino winked at Adrien slyly when he thought Marinette wasn't looking and she groaned dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air. The butterflies still fluttered and the warm fuzzies still lingered, but this was ridiculous. “Whatever, guys! Pull yourselves together and let's get baking!”

Marinette pulled out one of the recipe books and handed it to Adrien, leaving Alya and Nino to fend for themselves.

Adrien open it up to a random page and immediately frowned at the huge list of ingredients.

“I don't know, Marinette,” he muttered as he skeptically inspected each page he flipped to. “These seem really complicated for a newb.”

Marinette peeked at the page he was on and shook her head. “How about we _don't_ start with gâteau,” she advised, flipping through until she reached the butter cookies. “Here, this is a beginner's recipe. Butter cookies are easy and awesome.”

Adrien crinkled his nose as he read the page quietly. It seemed even mixing ingredients together might be perplexing him. Marinette interceded before his frown stayed stuck on his face all day. This was supposed to be _fun_ after all.

She leaned in closer to him to read the directions. “Don't look so grumpy, Adrien. Baking is actually a lot easier than cooking.” Adrien leaned in closer to her, his arms brushing against hers, as she trailed her finger down the page. He couldn't be more obvious and she loved it.

“See, it's just a simple list, and you put everything into the bowl exactly like they tell you.”

She looked up at him and caught him intently _not_ looking at the page. His eyes were locked on her profile, moving to her ears and jawline and settling on her lips again. He could at least pretend to want to bake, right? Or maybe he did but.…Was he going to kiss her right there? Right now? The fire was back in his eyes and she blushed fiercely.

“Um...just, you know, follow the directions to the T and you can't go wrong,” she managed to say quietly.

“You have no idea what I'm capable of, do you?” he said with a wry smile. The way he said it made her seriously question if they were still talking about baking. Right now, in her dad's kitchen with their rabidly entertained friends, couldn't possibly be the right time for her longest fantasy to come true.

Her nervous laugh dissipated the moment and she quickly started pulling empty bowls and ingredients towards them. “Oh funny, ha ha. Come on, let's get started.”

Alya had finally pulled herself together but she and Nino seemed more intent on fiddling with each other's fingers than flipping through their book.

“Mmm, what's this?” Adrien spotted all the curious jars and pots of spices spread around them and began pulling some towards them. This particular recipe didn't call for any of them. As Marinette cracked eggs, he started opening them up one at a time.

He sniffed one and closed his eyes happily before waving it under Marinette's nose.

“What's this?”

“Nutmeg,” she said easily.

“Mmm, _nutmeg_.” He grabbed another jar and sniffed it. “And this?”

“Cinnamon.” He was being entirely unhelpful as she put yolks into the batter, but if he was enjoying himself by sniffing everything, oh well.

“And this?” he said more enthusiastically. Marinette had a feeling this was going to go on for a while as she started on the dry bowl of ingredients.

“Cardamom,” she said simply as she peeked at the recipe again. She flicked her eyes up at him and smirked. “Are you going to help or just stick your nose in all my dad's spices?”

“Oh, woops,” he said with an embarrassed grin, making a show of pushing them away. “So it's not cool to just use them? They smell awesome.”

“Well…I don't know....the recipe doesn't call for them.” Marinette scanned the page to confirm she was right. Nope. No spices.

“Does everything have to be in the recipe?”

Marinette shrugged. “Unless you want to risk messing things up?”

Adrien opened his mouth to say something, maybe to challenge her statement, but he must have remembered he had absolutely zero skills at baking, so his mouth clicked shut.

“What?”she asked curiously.

“Nuthin',” he shrugged. “Told you I could mess this up.” He grinned a big goofy grin that made her laugh and directed him towards a baking sheet from the cabinets. She looked up from her mixing bowl to see how Alya and Nino were faring, and paused with a frown.

So one of her reasons for doing this whole baking thing was so Nino and Alya could keep their hands busy. If they arrived and started making out immediately, she'd have no clue what to do with Adrien...well, besides... _that_.

But their hands _were_ busy, just not with baking. Unless they'd both swallowed their ingredients and only tongues would serve to fish them out. Arms wrapped around each other, it was a wonder they could breathe.

Marinette groaned loudly and palmed her forehead, gesturing to them when Adrien pulled up beside her again.

“Ooo, something's cooking over there,” he joked quietly. He clearly wasn't phased by it and didn't mind his best friend having some excitement.

“I asked her not to make this weird,” she mumbled quietly.

“Yeah?” He frowned as he glanced at her, then back at Alya and Nino. He shifted uncomfortably when he realized Marinette might he less than thrilled.

“Whatever, it's okay. Let's finish these cookies.”

“Hang on, Marinette. You didn't set this all up for nothing right?” Marinette questioned him speechlessly, not sure where he was going with this. “I didn't think so.”

Adrien surveyed the cluttered table pensively for a moment. “Adrien? What--?” Before she could finish her question, he grabbed an egg and hurled it with full force straight at the back of Nino's head.

With a sickening wet crack and splat, his best friend abruptly broke from his preoccupation and rounded on him. “Ouch! Dude! What the fuck was that?” The egg made a gross slimy goop on the back of Nino's head, half of the shell slowly sliding down lazily. “Not cool, bro!”

“Ew! What the hell, Adrien?” Alya cried, flicking some of the egg white off her cheek. Adrien grinned innocently and shrugged, looking back behind him at the blank wall.

“What? Somebody's throwing things.” His eyes brightened and he clapped his hands once. “But now that we have your attention, let's bake!” His grin wavered as he saw a spark light up his friends' eyes.

Marinette gulped theatrically and took a wary step back, knowing exactly where this was going. “Uh, guys?”

Adrien looked at Marinette for a little help but she just splayed her hands helplessly, slowly crouching down below the table, her eyes locked on his.

“Bring ammo,” she whispered, snatching a fresh egg from the counter.

Adrien snapped his attention back to Nino and Alya in time to watch them mold and shape handfuls of flour like they were snowballs. Their eyes glittered with sweet revenge and Adrien stepped back. “You don't get away with that, Agreste,” Alya said menacingly as Adrien splayed his hands in surrender.

“Hey, look, guys, I'm totally sorry for--! ”

The balls of flour flew towards him at the same time, half disintegrating on the trip over before smacking onto Adrien's forehead and shoulder.

“Aaaah, hey!” Marinette tugged him down hard to join her beneath the table. She handed him an egg with a warrior's resolve.

“You get Nino, I'll take Alya. Crawl to the end of the table so they don't see where we'll pop up. Got it?”

“Got it.” He was dead set serious while the daub of flour plastered ridiculously on his forehead only made it better.

“Okay, on the count of three.” Adrien crouch walked to the other end of the table, and Marinette mouthed silently, raising each finger accordingly, _One. Two._ “Three!”

They both leaped up from behind the table, their new positions catching their foes by surprise. Marinette's egg smacked right into Alya's forehead as she was ducking, and Nino had the reflexes of a sloth as his ear became a goopy mess.

“Son of a bitch! This is war, woman!” Alya screeched.

Food was flying in seconds. It was a frantic frenzy of flour and sugar, and anything that could fly was flown across the room. Nino and Alya armed themselves with spoon catapults of whipped cream, and Marinette and Adrien managed to hijack every egg in the room. Flour snow balls careened across the room, crisscrossing the air with trails of white powder that soon covered everything.

In a brilliant move, Adrien slid across the top of the kitchen table as gracefully as a cat, snatching a bowl of melted chocolate as he went, and sent it straight down on top of Nino's head. The new helmet gushed over his features and Adrien finally received the surrender he'd been hoping for.

Marinette was less than lucky. It was only when Alya managed to tip an entire pot of strawberry preserves over her head that she raised her voice over the din and laughter.

“Time out!” she cried between gasping breathes. “Stop, stop, everyone! Holy shit, that's enough!” Everyone paused until the room rang with the sudden silence. “Just... _phew_...okay. I think we're good. We've given my parents enough reason to kill me.”

She stumbled towards the counter and threw Alya and Nino two dish towels. “Now we clean.” She watched their dismay as she slowly let her legs slide out from under her until she was sitting on the floor against the cabinets.

“Price we pay, people!” she laughed dryly. Five minutes of fun would lead to _hours_ of _more_ fun, it seemed.

Adrien crawled on hands and knees towards her, his whole countenance covered with almost every spice he'd been sniffing earlier. At least he had the good grace to smile sheepishly as he leaned on the cabinet next to her.

“That got a little out of hand, didn't it?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yeah, ya think? Don't worry, I won't forget who started it.”

He blushed deeply and cast his eyes around the destroyed kitchen before settling back to her. He once more lowered his eyes to her lips, but now she was relatively sure she was a jammy mess.

She curiously watched him lift his thumb towards her lips, and held her breathe as he trailed something along the corner. He came away with the strawberry goop and turned his thumb this way and that to analyze it.

“And this?” he asked.

Marinette licked her lips and seemed to consider carefully as she tasted what came away. “Strawberry preserves.”

His eyes sparked and Marinette watched his tongue come out to lick the pad of his thumb. She bit her lip to hide her blossoming grin.

“Is it okay if I'm not sorry?” he asked with a spark of mischief in his eyes that belied his sugary sweet tone. She knew that look from _somewhere_....

She felt herself nod, her stomach full of little freed akuma butterflies again. There was absolutely nothing wrong with loving this boy and letting all of these pieces fall where they may. Everything was simple and clear now, more than it had ever been, and she was getting everything she'd ever wanted. She _was_ one lucky bug.

A damp wash cloth suddenly flew across the room and nailed Adrien smack on the face with a splat. “Hey, what the fuck?” He turned to see Nino grinning ear to ear.

“Oh sorry, bro. Did I just kill your mojo?”  
And that would be the true revenge that Nino had needed. At least Alya had the good sense to punch him in the arm for it.

Adrien turned back to her flushed as he made to stand, giving her a helpful hand up.

Yeah, Marinette could safely say she was far from sorry too.

* * *

Four showers, one load of laundry and the sight of two teenage boys in borrowed His and Hers bathrobes was the icing on the cake for the day.

Adrien had uncomfortably adjusted Sabine's kimono bathrobe around him as he had waited for the laundry to finish up. Nino had won the bet and was wearing Tom's, but from the way the massive towel kept sliding off of him, it was hard to tell who had really won.

At least three of them were always working on cleaning the kitchen, but Marinette sent Nino and Alya to go chill while she finished up downstairs.

Adrien eventually came down, freshly laundered and showered. Instead of the expression she'd been hoping to see, he looked regretful instead.

“Hey, Marinette.” He tucked his cell back into his pocket after what must have been an unhappy conversation. “Looks like I have to skip out in a few minutes.” He twisted his lips in a pout and shrugged. “Father is traveling to Shanghai and wants to see me before he goes.”

Marinette quickly rearranged her features to hide her disappointment. “Oh it's okay!” She cringed at her own forced levity and smiled. “I'm glad you came. Sorry we didn't actually bake anything...But oh!”

She scampered away and reached into the fridge for a platter. Adrien's eyes lit up at the array of pastries on the tray before him and she grinned at how quickly she could cheer him up.

“I had my dad make you one of everything before he left.”

“What?” His smile faded and he just watched her in awed wonder, like he couldn't quite believe her.

Marinette blushed and shrugged. “You said you didn't know your favorite, remember?”

Adrien stared down blankly at the tray, stunned speechless. He was quiet for so long that Marinette started to get nervous.

“Marinette.” His voice came out quiet, almost a whisper. “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me.”

She laughed nervously and brushed away the compliment with a wave. “Oh it's okay, it's just pastries--.”

“It's not, though.” He looked at her with such an earnest appreciation that she had to break eye contact from his intensity. “You remembered that about me. And you cared enough to do this. Thank you so much.”

There was a weight to his words, like this little gesture meant even more to him than he was letting on, but she must have been imagining it. They were just pastries, after all.

“Well? Try them quick, before your chauffer gets here.”

She set them on the counter and Adrien didn't waste time digging in. He went straight for the eclairs first and had the entire platter cleared off just before the horn outside declared his time was up.

“Oh shit, looks like I gotta go.” He brushed the pastry dough off his lips to remove the evidence.

“Don't forget these, too.” Marinette handed him a little container. “It's the butter cookies we made.”

“Really? There were still ingredients left?”

“Yeah of course. Luckily my dad runs a business and there's pounds of everything.” She winked playfully at him. “Hopefully you can smuggle these in?”

“Hell yeah I will.”

“They even um...have all of those spices you liked,” she added timidly.

“What? You didn't follow the recipe?” he exclaimed in mock horror.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny, doofus.” She shrugged. “Hopefully they turned out okay. I'm not really good at improv baking.”

“I'm sure they're amazing.” He bent down to kiss her on the cheek. “Thank you, Marinette.”

The horn blasted abnoxiously loud until Adrien was forced to hurry out of the shop, leaving Marinette to linger her fingertips against her cheek.

* * *

“You _are_ a doofus. Why don't you just kiss her already!?”

Plagg chewed happily on Marinette's cookie even though it wasn't one of his usual staples. It wasn't as deliciously stinky as cheese, but it had a nice bite to it.

“Ugh, Plagg, you have no tact. I can't just grab her and kiss her!”

“Why not? Don't they do that in all your dumb movies?”

“Well, for one, I had to be sure she _wanted_ me to kiss her.”

“And now are you _sure_?”

That drew out a sickening sigh from Adrien as he grinned dumbly. This kid was probably the most lovestruck Chat he'd ever known.

“I'm _paws_ itive. But it has to be something super romantic, Plagg. I can't just kiss her and run out the door. Or kiss her with Alya and Nino standing there gaping at us!” Adrien furrowed his brows deeply, contemplating his next moves with the dedication of the truly whipped. “It has to be _special_. She's special. She's amazing.”

“Ugh, you're such a smitten kitten, kid. Well, figure it out soon, kay? Sixteen and you've never had a girlfriend! I could use a break from all your unrequited love crap.”

Adrien sighed and stared wistfully out his wall of windows in the general direction of her house.

“Her birthday is coming up soon. That's what it'll be. Something big for her birthday....”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Episode Two is up next! Remember, we have some villians to contend with!! Bwah ha ha!!


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